Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Lorraine Hansberry Theater's Home in San Francisco Threatened By Eviction

The Lorraine Hansberry Theater, San Fransico's oldest African American theater company, may lose its 19-year-old home. The Academy of Art University is purchasing the building where the theater is housed and will not be renewing its lease. Hansberry Executive Director Quentin Easter said its lease expires July 31. Mayor Gavin Newsom has been approached by the San Francisco Opera, the Symphony, the Ballet, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Academy Conservatory Theater to save the Hansberry because it's "a hallmark cultural institution for this city" and urge him to "do everything you can to help this organization preserve its home."

"Obviously, the Lorraine Hansberry is extremely significant, not just in San Francisco but across the country," said Kary Schulman, director of the city's Grants for the Arts program. "It's the West Coast's longest established African American theater. It has a fine reputation. Many terrific actors and directors and technicians have gone through there. It's been an important training ground. It's still managed by its founding artistic and executive directors, and continuity is such an important factor in arts organizations."

"The motto of the Academy of Art University is, 'Built by artists for artists,' " ACT Executive Director Heather Kitchen said. "It seems to me that, as artists, they would understand that to lose one's home of many years without much notice would be very harmful. Perhaps they could put profit on the back seat for a little bit and allow the theater a year to complete its season and find a new home. If they're abruptly displaced, it's going to really affect their ability to serve their artists and their audiences."

The last remaining black theater company in California with its own stage, the Hansberry has achieved a national profile beyond that of most companies its size. Founded in a storefront by Artistic Director Stanley E. Williams and Easter, the company endured a nomadic existence before finding a home in the YWCA building, a 1917 historic landmark designed by Louis Hobart, who also designed the nearby Bohemian Club and Marines Memorial buildings. The company renovated the Y's former gymnasium in 1988 and built its theater for about $500,000 in what is regarded as a historic partnership of city, private, corporate and foundation funding. During its two decades there, the Hansberry has struggled against downturns in the economy and the general decline of ethnic-specific theaters as larger regional companies broadened the diversity of their programming. Williams and Easter bucked the trend by attracting major African American artists and collaborating with other companies, ranging from Cultural Odyssey and the San Francisco Mime Troupe to ACT and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Nationally known artists such as the late playwright August Wilson, Ntozake Shange, Danny Glover, Alice Walker, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and recent Tony winner Anika Noni Rose have worked there. Easter said the theater's recently completed 26th season was one of its most successful, attracting a total audience of about 20,000 people. "We had a 40 percent uptick in sales," he said. "People are enthusiastic about coming here. We were looking forward to a banner year, building on that momentum. It's all at risk at this point. "The next five-show season was set to open in October with an adaptation of Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," followed by Langston Hughes' "Black Nativity," the theater's popular holiday offering. It also regularly rents out its space, making it one of the few available midsize theaters in the downtown theater district. David Drake's East Coast production of "2 Boys in a Bed on a Cold Winter's Night," running from July 5 through 29, could be the last show at the theater if the company has to leave. Easter said he still hopes the theater and the Academy will come to an accommodation that will allow the company to stay, at least long enough to look for a new home downtown. Even the state of the ownership of the building is hard to figure out, he said, "between new owners and leasers and options to purchase. A very complicated set of real estate maneuvers is going forth. We hope that if they (the Academy) hear from enough people, they'll decide not to move us out or to work with us on a transition. Hope springs eternal."

Meanwhile, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who represents the Hansberry's district, introduced a resolution at Tuesday's board meeting to try to save the theater in its current location. Stating that the board "considers African American arts and culture as embodied by the Hansberry to be important to the character and values of our city," the resolution calls on the Academy "to work cooperatively" with the company "to find a solution that would allow the theater to remain at its historic location."

Peskin aide Rose Chung said she expects the resolution to pass at next Tuesday's meeting.